Checking assumptions about church

I have come to appreciate the fact that the writers of New Testament did not provide a definition of the church. There does not exist a transcultural form, liturgy or practice by which a church can be identified and classified. Instead we are given powerful metaphors such as the body of Christ, or the bride of Christ which prevents us from reducing the church to an agency, institution or organization. These metaphors stimulate our imagination to explore a myriad of communal expressions of the kingdom of God. Church exists through house churches, training institutions, mission agencies, orphanages as well as through traditional congregations, all living under God’s rule and revealing some aspect of what it means to be the body of Christ in this world. I found the following check-list taken from Postmodernity and the Emerging Church By Geoff Westlake in LausanneWorldPulse.com Feb 07 to be very helpful in challenging my assumptions concerning legitimate expressions of emerging and established churches:

Absence of singing does not equal absence of worship.

Absence of certain miracles does not mean they do not see God at work.

A focus beyond the assembly does not negate care within the assembly.

Absence of preaching does not equal absence of learning or of the ministry of the word.

Interactive learning does not equal theological shallowness.

Absence of traditional liturgy does not equal a piece-meal approach to God’s grand narrative.

Living with the people in the harvest does not equal syncretism.

Missiological flexibility does not equal theological looseness at the core.

Respect for individual autonomy does not equal individualistic formation.

Absence of tithing does not equal absence of stewardship.

Absence of external structures does not equal absence of internal structure.

Absence of denominational control does not equal absence of accountability.